Because... Michael Jordan?

As I reflected on today’s Think Kit prompt (Alternative History - Imagine how your life today would be different if an event in history would've gone another way) I realized very quickly that my life has had a few huge forks that are all a result of the ultimate king of basketball: Michael Jordan.

Believe it or not, I’m only a recent convert to true sports fandom. You see, I grew up in the northwest Chicago ‘burbs (IL), which is where I found the first major fork in the road in my life: identify myself as an artist or athlete? I definitely participated in sports and was a 4 year gymnast in highschool, but really only knew about one pro athlete: Air Jordan.

Dude was a beast. The king of beasts! What Michael Jordan helped me understand was that you can have interests in many things alongside sports. i.e. Art AND sports. Music AND sports. Not just sports. Michael transcended sports, becoming a true icon of the 90’s and everyone loved Michael (I think?).

When the decision to attend a higher ed. university came along, I decided that… yes, I would attend and I would make my decision based on my current career interest which was architecture. I applied to Ball State, which had a great reputation for architecture curriculum, and guess what? I was denied. Even after 4 years of CAD classes in high school. Maybe my work wasn’t very good!

I thought, what would Michael do? He would show them good! He would go to Ball State, make his way into the program anyway and crush it with incredible ideas and design work. Well I didn’t do that either, but I did realize that I could have the best of both worlds again by combining a business degree in the progressive Entreprenuership program with a minor in fine art. Ha! I showed them!

This was the ultimate fork in the road: despite not knowing anyone in Indiana I chose Ball State and, over the course of living in IN about 15 years, have come to call myself a Hoosier. The alternative would have been to stay in IL and pursue the path of least resistance. Perhaps choosing a career path in "business" and sticking close to home (which I do miss).

Was that what Michael would have done? No way!

Michael Jordan would have slammed a tomahawk dunk through the Ball State bell tower ...

...causing a cataclysmic ring that sounded through eternity.

All jokes aside, without Michael the world may not have dreamed quite as big or pursued those big dreams. In reality, Michael helped me in a small way. My decisions were influenced by people like my father who taught me to work incredibly hard and get the absolute most out of my investment in college.

Today's prompt: "Alternative history. Imagine how your life today would be different if an event in history would've gone another way. What if the British defeated the American colonies during the Revolutionary War? What if Prohibition never ended? What if the 9/11 terrorist attacks never took place?"